He installs a Porsche engine in his airplane!

There is a Porsche in the sky, or more precisely five in the world. The Mooney M20L is equipped with the legendary Flat 6 3.2-liter naturally aspirated engine.

Choosing means giving up. So, rather than choosing between your plane and your Porsche, why not have a plane Porsche with the world’s most unique sound? That of the legendary Flat 6 of the Porsche 911 Type 930. After all, there is even an electric boat… with a Porsche powertrain.

The Mooney M20L was born in 1988 after Porsche, as early as 1984, sought to ensure its survival by diversifying its engineering activities. Thus was created the company Porsche Flug-Motor, for PFM, whose automotive engines were certified for flight. Forty units of this legendary aircraft were produced over two years before the project ultimately crashed.

Since then, according to Porsche, only five units are still in flying condition, the others having been destroyed. Weighing barely 900 kg empty, the Mooney M20L can then carry four passengers and their luggage.

A Frugality Worthy of a 911

The success of the Mooney was certainly due to its sound, but also its low operating costs. The advertising brochure claimed a fuel consumption of 38 liters/hour of flight, whereas the norm in aviation was then 50 liters. But the real argument was unprecedented for the time: the engine’s ignition system. In case of electrical failure, the plane would still have approximately 1 hour of flight time thanks to Porsche’s reliability.

An aircraft equipped with a Porsche engine made a round-the-world trip without aiming for records: 300 takeoffs and landings, 600 hours of flying, 100,000 kilometers traveled, and only 30 liters of oil consumed. And no mechanical failure.

Nonetheless, it was not easy for Porsche to carve out a place in the ultra-exclusive aviation market. Only about 80 aircraft had a German engine under their hood. As early as 1990, Porsche decided to shut down this division to focus on other projects, such as the stunning 911 Type 993 which arrived a few years later.

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